SS asked me about this on the chat as well... this was my answer to her that should answer it well enough for everyone else too.

phreadom wrote:(8:16:21 PM) Justin: you have to log in to see the new posts.(8:16:27 PM) Justin: it's because of drupal caching.(8:16:41 PM) Justin: now that the forum is embedded in the main part of the site, it's cached for anonymous users.(8:16:46 PM) Justin: so new posts don't show up for awhile.(8:16:54 PM) Justin: logging in disables that caching.(8:17:11 PM) Justin: I can't disable it for the whole site because it's too much load for the server and the site won't work for anyone then.(8:17:28 PM) Justin: I submitted a bug report to the developers of the module that ties the forum to the main part of the site.

I'll clean that up and explain further after I get some sleep. Can't think right now.

Phreadom, it's all part of Drupal's funky handling of threads -- part of what I've mentioned before about clicking on "new posts" and seeing posts that are already a couple of days old *and* that I've already seen still showing up in the window.

I will always maintain that "show new threads" should *only* show threads that are new since the last time you were there -- logging in or out regardless (that's what cookies are for). All my other fora operate that way -- I really just don't get why this one doesn't. :shrug:

AJBryant wrote:Phreadom, it's all part of Drupal's funky handling of threads -- part of what I've mentioned before about clicking on "new posts" and seeing posts that are already a couple of days old *and* that I've already seen still showing up in the window.

I will always maintain that "show new threads" should *only* show threads that are new since the last time you were there -- logging in or out regardless (that's what cookies are for). All my other fora operate that way -- I really just don't get why this one doesn't. :shrug:

Are all your other forums set not to actually log you out automatically for 48 hours? Because that's how long this one is set to.

I suppose I could cut that time down dramatically, which is probably what everyone else does... but in the past we felt it was better to not make people have to log back in all the time for convenience' sake.

Unless you wait 48 hours for your session to time out, without visiting the site in that amount of time, OR explicitly log yourself out manually, the "new posts" list will not reset. Which is why I only use it to look for the little orange page icon to show which threads I have or haven't caught up on reading since new posts were made. I suppose I should be using the "active posts" page for this function instead... but oh well.

Maybe we should revisit the issue of session length? Maybe make it an hour or something?

As I understand from Justin, because it's cached on the server itself, non-logged in users see totally different pages. The site takes a snapshot of the forum every so often and only shows that snapshot to non-logged in users.

I think my only problem is when I do posting here. In the past, usually after I posted, I would re-read it again, double checked and I would just log out. After logging out, I could see my own posts right away ...... but this new setting didn't seem to operate in this way any more, even after I cleared all the cookies and reloaded, it still didn't show my newest posts (or other members' posts) until a much later time. So, I thought it was my pc giving me problems.

It's no big deal, seriously, it's just that it never occurs to me that I have to stay login at all time to view latest posts in the forum. I think I understand the problem now. Thanks for your explanation.

phreadom wrote:Are all your other forums set not to actually log you out automatically for 48 hours? Because that's how long this one is set to.

I suppose I could cut that time down dramatically, which is probably what everyone else does... but in the past we felt it was better to not make people have to log back in all the time for convenience' sake.

No, that's not the issue. I never log out (I set them on "keep me logged in") so I don't have to "sign in" every time I go there. The pages just *know* what's new since last time I was there. I assume its a cookie that tracks when I'm there, and when I leave the forum it says "okay, he's not here. Start the clock" -- and when I go back, whammo, new topics. :shrug: it's no big deal, but it weirds me out that this is the only place that doesn't do that.

phreadom wrote:Are all your other forums set not to actually log you out automatically for 48 hours? Because that's how long this one is set to.

I suppose I could cut that time down dramatically, which is probably what everyone else does... but in the past we felt it was better to not make people have to log back in all the time for convenience' sake.

No, that's not the issue. I never log out (I set them on "keep me logged in") so I don't have to "sign in" every time I go there. The pages just *know* what's new since last time I was there. I assume its a cookie that tracks when I'm there, and when I leave the forum it says "okay, he's not here. Start the clock" -- and when I go back, whammo, new topics. :shrug: it's no big deal, but it weirds me out that this is the only place that doesn't do that.

V V

I would guess that there is a fundamental difference between "keep me logged in" and the actual sessions.

"Keep me logged in" I would think just sets a cookie that automatically logs you back in when you return, regardless of how long you've been away... so it doesn't matter when the session times out. So on these other sites you'll never notice because it will just automatically have you logged in when you came back... so to you it looks like the "new posts" list gets updated because on the server side your session ended and a new one is created when you return and are "logged in" again automatically with your "keep me logged in" cookie.

Here however that session doesn't time out because you come back before the 48 hour expiry time... thus the system never ends your session (which would thus reset your new posts count since your last session) because that session never ended.

For people who don't choose the "keep me logged in" option, this is more readily apparent because after being away for awhile (more than 48 hours) they'll be forced to login again... thus making it clear their session timed out.

Just as a test I'm going to set the session to 1 hour and we'll see if you still have the same issue.

Now if you're gone for more than 1 hour, even though you still stay logged in, your "new posts" list should only show the posts since your "Last Visited: 28 Jan 2010 08:34 pm" time stored for your account.